CNY runners leave cold and snow in the dust at new indoor track on OCC campus

Jim Commentucci / The Post-StandardParticipants in the YMCA of Greater Syracuse's winter runners' program work out Dec. 20 on the 200-meter indoor track in the new SRC Arena on the Onondaga Community College campus.

Many Central New York runners, who could only fantasize about having an indoor running facility while slogging through knee-high snow and dodging slush-filled potholes and black ice patches, will soon see their wishes come true when the indoor track in Onondaga Community College's new SRC Arena officially opens in early January. To help local runners get psyched, the YMCA of Greater Syracuse offered a sneak peek of the six-lane, 200-meter indoor track last week.

The indoor track will serve a variety of groups. Current OCC students may use the track and the new Southwest YMCA on OCC's campus at no charge, and college faculty and staff may pay a $15 monthly fee to use the facility. Section III high school teams will hold indoor track meets there, and YMCA of Greater Syracuse members may use the track at no extra charge. Those YMCAs include the Downtown (Syracuse) Y, the North Area Family Y (Liverpool), the East Area Family Y (Fayetteville) and the new Southwest Y at OCC.

Kevin Collins, director of running for the YMCA, trains more than 250 YMCA runners. Collins said the new track is the only indoor track in the area appropriate for racing since Manley Field House's indoor track was reduced to three lanes.

"It has markings and legitimate distance to it," Collins said of the new track. "You'd have to go to Cornell University or Hamilton College to find something close to this."

Collins plans to utilize the track to work with many of the 10 YMCA running groups he oversees each week, and the runners are looking forward to having the opportunity to train year round.

One of the runners, Megan Hahn, of Manlius, said, "With the extreme temperature changes in the summer and winter, it will be great to have a safe place indoors to run without being confined to a treadmill."

Penny Noll, of Cazenovia, said she is thrilled to have the opportunity to train on the indoor track, because at age 59, she feels the cold weather more than she did when she was younger.

"It will be great to run on the track's wonderful surface in a well-lit facility," Noll said, "and not worry about slipping, twisting an ankle, falling or straining a muscle running on the snow and ice in the dark after work."

Jeff Mackey, senior wellness director at the Southwest YMCA, said they hope to open to the general public Jan. 2, and after that the track should be available for use the same hours as the rest of the facility - 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays; and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Mackey said the track would be closed during special SRC Arena events such as concerts or shows.

"I know a lot of people are looking forward to it," Mackey said. "It's just a nice thing for our community to have and it's going to draw people from all areas, which is nice."